the_paradigm_conflictfandomcom-20200213-history
Beauty
In the first decade of the New Millennia, the all-female team of metahuman criminals caused quite a stir in Paradigm City by not only publicly espousing their rhetoric that all social, economic, and political power should be stripped from men and given to woman but also by committing acts of murder, mayhem, and terror to prove that their belief was not just words but a deeply held quasi-religious viewpoint. In 2003, Beauty was openly declared by the Bush Administration to be a terrorist organization and the five ladies making up the team were placed on a series of watch lists and hunted by both American and NATO law enforcement agencies. Beauty was supported by and large by extreme militant feminist groups until the team got its perfectly manicured hands on a nuclear dirty bomb and threatened to set it off in Millennium City. It was there undoing. Even the most Liberal of feminist groups quickly abandoned them, publicly declaring the women to be mentally unstable and the worst possible example of Feminism. Beauty was derided the entire world over. The smart bomb was located by The Defender's League and disarmed, but Beauty was nowhere to be found. The entire team simply vanished, apparently never to resurface. Just when haughty and arrogant male power holders thought it was safe to go back into the water Beauty returned. In 2015 the team struck at the Democratic National Convention. Before heroes could respond, the ladies of Beauty had killed two congressmen, an Assemblyman and his family, and almost two dozen police officers. Those few whom had foolishly derides Beauty as weak fell silent. Those whom spoke of Beauty being harmless were rendered speechless. Those that had called out for Beauty's arrest redoubled their vocal outrage. Beauty had returned, indeed, The History of Beauty "Sometimes she shines and I know - Beauty has Her way." --Mummy Calls Despite Ladybug's successes in murdering prominent men of power and defeating a handful of superheroes, she knew it was only a matter of time before she and Concussion would be outmatched and out powered by heroic super-human crime fighters. Her solution was to create a team of female criminals whom shared her views and opinions. In late 2000, she abruptly stopped appearing as Ladybug and, drawing upon her numerous contacts in the criminal world, began seeking women with both a reputation for toughness and endurance, smarts, and political viewpoints that meshed with her own. The first roots of the team were born when Ladybug was made aware of a young woman calling herself Alcohol whom was responsible for a string of auto accidents. In the whispered corners of the underworld, however, it was said that this young lady had committed murder by shutting down the synapses of the drivers of up and coming politicians. Ladybug was quick to follow up. She and Concussion traveled to the sleepy town of Auburn and tracked Alcohol down, inviting her to meet them for dinner in order to discuss a possible union. At first, Alcohol was unimpressed by the two women she met despite their venomous rhetoric against men but when she realized she was speaking with Ladybug and Concussion she was quick to join up. Now a trio, the ladies traveled to Green Bay, Wisconsin; following rumors of a woman there whom had used her powers of malleability to hunt down and murder police officers and detectives. Though Ink was difficult to find, the trio of Beauty managed to track her down based on tips and hints once again provided by informants in the criminal underworld. Not only was Ink unwilling to listen to the pitches and promises made to her she also attacked but was quickly brought to heel by Alcohol. Impressed by how quickly she had been brought down, Ink calmed herself down long enough to listen to the offer. She took a few days to review Ladybug's stream of successes and the political mien of the trio and decided that working with the three ladies would be in her best interest. Ink was further motivated by her crush on Alcohol, and new that by joining, she would have many chances to admire the mentalist. Now a foursome, the team practiced with team moves and made contingencies for any possible scenario with repetition and practice. When Ladybug though they were ready, the team attacked Paradigm City assemblyman Jack Thompson as he was giving a rally in Citywalk. Though they managed to kill eleven police officers, they learned much to their chagrin that Thompson himself had superpowers: he was a brute with superhuman strength and durability. All but impervious to the team's attacks, Thompson wasn't defeated until all of the ladies hit them with all they had at the same time, overwhelming his defenses. They escaped, but only just. The near miss caused Ladybug to realize that what the team needed was a second tank to work as a supplement for herself. All four woman utilized their many combined contacts and finally located a woman calling herself Pinnacle active in New York whose primary modus operandi was to cripple and kill police officers. The entire team traveled to New York City and got messages to Pinnacle. Pinnacle, upon being made aware that it was no less a personage than Ladybug trying to contact her and invite her into the Beauty team, accepted the offer before the meeting was even held. Then came 2015... The Members of Beauty All of the women of Beauty have been severely burned by male-dominated relationships. Each of the ladies are extreme misandrists and will never hold a male--even male superheroes--in anything but utter contempt and derision. Female heroes are much more likely to get one or all of the ladies to engage in conversation but no matter the intent of female heroes, one fact remains: Beauty are killers. If a man they target won't surrender his authority willingly, he will surrender it by losing his life. 'Ladybug ' serves as the team leader and primary tanker. She is well-respected by her team mates and trusts each of them as deeply as they trust her. Ladybug is very protective of all of her ladies, especially Concussion. Ladybug has recently been wooing the mentalist serial killer and assassin Mind Slayer, attempting to bring her into Beauty's ranks. Because Mind Slayer is an assassin for hire that takes any contract that comes her way, it is unknown whether or not she will accept the invitation. Concussion The tiny, wailing toddler that Saeda Himoshi fled with would grow up in a loving and supporting environment. Named by her adoptive mother, Amanda Himoshi still has no idea that she is the missing Tierney baby and at this stage in her life, with her devotion to her mother in all things, it's likely she wouldn't care. When Amanda was on the eve of her twelfth birthday she started complaining of bodily aches and pains that were gradually increasing in severity around her forearms and hands. Her mother took her to doctors, then specialist. Test were run, observations were made, and in the end it was agreed upon that Amanda Himoshi was a genetic mutant. She was put in Bellreave hospital as her powers developed. When they finally hit, seventeen days after her twelfth birthday, it was in a way that nobody could have expected, she blew out the east wall of her hospital room and accidentally killed a nurse. The terror didn't stop until she tucked her hands under her arms and wept for surcease. Of all of the doctors and specialists whom responded it was only her mother, with the assistance of a one Echo Johnson, whom was able to determine the type of energy and create fitted bands to stop the flow. Feeling herself cursed for life but eager to help her mother, she became the second and commanding member of Beauty. Concussion is an extremely angry and bitter young woman whom takes out her self-loathing and rage on the world around her. She is a genetic mutant who's hands are a conductor point for a parallel dimension known only as the Quantum spectrum. This bright red energy surges and blasts from her hands at all times, requiring that she wear special retainers, built by her mother, to control it. Concussions retainers are activated by precises and practiced motions of her hands. Panels in each fingertip can be opened to allow out a beam as thin and precise as a pencil. The panels on the palms can be opened to emit blasts of differing strength, from just strong enough to knock someone over without seriously harming them, to peeling away from her hands completely to release her most destructive blasts, which can take down a medium-sized building. She takes her name from the sheer impact force of her blasts, which at full bore can pulverize bone and send a foe knocked back for almost 100 meters, One of her favorite tactics in battle is to trick a hero into thinking her retainers are the source of her power so that a hero will struggle to remove them only to get a full blast. Because her body is attuned to the energy she constantly emits, she cannot be harmed or injured by her own blasts. Thanks to Ladybug's coaching and training, Concussion is a superb athlete and hand to hand combatant. She specializes in throws and body flips, and heavily relies on an attack pattern of throwing a hero to the ground and then blasting him while he's down. Because she must wear the retainers at all times, she has no tactile sense which only infuriates her even further. While all of the ladies of Beauty are brutal and merciless, Concussion is the only one who goes out of her way to cause as much damage as possible. Alcohol Heather Perry was brutalized and victimized by her father in the most heinous way imaginable. Even worse, she was shared by her father with not only his friends but also her uncle before she was fifteen years old. Can it be any wonder that Heather, daddy's little cupcake, grew up traumatized to the point that every single creature with a Y chromosome is the enemy? When Heather finally had enough, her spirit broken and her soul rotted through, she scoured her native Darkness Falls for any drug she could get her hands on and then took all of them at the same time in an attempt to end her pain. The plan worked, after a fashion. Rather than dying, Heather gained a magnanimous super ability that was even better than death. It allowed her revenge. So the next time that daddy's little cupcake was called upon to entertain daddy and his friends, she went in smiling. She also came out smiling. That's how the police found her, covered in blood and softly smiling. Somehow, Heather's pain and anguish manifested itself as an ability to control the sensory synapses and motor neurons of any target she concentrates on. For two years she was the most subtle of killers, making all of her murders look accidental. By causing her targets to lose their sight or ability to control their own muscles they would die in horrible car accidents, stumble into elevator shafts or off of skyscrapers, and the like. Wise heroes squaring off against Beauty have to stay alert at all times, lest they suddenly be plunged into full sensory deprivation. Alcohol views men, all men, as the enemy. Full grown adult men regardless of profession or reputation are predators. Little boys? Predators in training. She has no mercy for anything male, regardless of age. However, Alcohol has a very deep seated compassion for women and girls whom are in the same position she was. Women whom are brutalized by the male figures in their life often suddenly find they have an unseen 'guardian angel': hundreds of dollars will appear in their mailboxes, medical bills will be paid, debts paid in full. Alcohol rarely lets these women know she is caring for them but every so often she will place a phone call or send an untracable email pleading with them to get out of their situation. If the abuse is particularly bad, and the victimized woman simply can't get out on her own or is a minor, sometimes Alcohol takes a more direct approach and the abuser is suddenly killed in a freak accident. Alcohol enjoys being part of Beauty and loves her team mates but of all the Beauty ladies she is the one most prone to act independently. Ink Almost nothing is known about the young woman now known as Ink. She was fingerprinted once as a Stacy Wiess from Detroit, Michigan, but then went completely off of the grid after rumors of some very extreme sexual abouse among her family. Talk among those same famiily members would only turn up possibilities that she had become a hermit, leaving the city to ferret out an existance in the wilds of Michigan. It was Ink that killed every male member of her family two years later. Normally an attractive black woman with very little to say, the Ink persona consists of an amorphouse symbiote she calls the Swarm that covers her head to toe at nearly all times. The Swarm grants Ink tremendouse strength and aliity, can sprout strangling tendrils from its back, and can form its hands into sword points, axe blades and hammers; anything it needs to get the job done. It can squeeze itself flat or roll out to diameters no bigger than a quarter in order to slip through narrow openings and crawl along pipes. Of all the members of Beauty, Ink is the most physically monstrous. Pinnacle Melissa Jordan was victimized by her high school sweetheart. Twice. When she finally screwed up the courage to report the attacks the police didn't take her seriously because back then date rape wasn't really a thing. She was fortunate enough to find a sympathetic female assistant district attorney willing to take the case but during the trial the defense attorney, naturally a man, turned her into the aggressor. Her ex-boyfriend walked out of the court house a free man, and Melissa walked out without any justice. The District Attorney declined to retry the case as unwinnable. So Melissa decided to take the law into her own hands. She began an intense regimen of athletics, intending never to be victimized again. She took self-defense courses, attained a black belt in Shotokan karate, and engaged in intensive weight training until she was solid, hard, and strong. So intense were her daily workouts she never even noticed that her force of will to be a brick wall in the freeway of running men that her mutant powers had surfaced. The next time Melissa accepted a date from her sweetheart, she removed the cigarette he had just lit and tossed it out of the car window. He struck her, and she ended up not only beating him to death but afterward, in a fit of Rage, dumping him from the car and then using the car itself to crush the remains into jelly. She has not yet answered for this crime. Although she is attractive and very fit, she doesn't have the 'bodybuilder' look that many female athletes get. Her strength is magnified to superhuman levels, allowing her to lift and carry up to four tons. But er biggest claim to fame is her density. The molecules of her body are so tightly packed together that it is incredibly difficult to injure her at all, most attacks thrown her way have their damage potential mitigated by half. A typical man punching her would likely break his hand, energy blasts that can send a car flying only slow her down a little. Because of her athletic training, her physical endurance to keep the fight going is incredible. Pinnacle has openly stated a desire to take on Brahma or Girl Wonder, to match their strengths and invulnerability. Pinnacle is a superb athlete, easily Olympic level, if not more. She is skilled with typical bar brawling tactics and utilizes her elbows, headbutts, and elbow strikes. As mentioned previously she is a black belt in Shotokan karate. She is an adept weight trainer and dead-lifter, a sprinter, pole vaulter, and tumbler. Modus Operandi Beauty's terrorist attacks are always distinctive in that their targets are always men whom are both active and powerful within the political, social, or economic arenas. Beauty doesn't commit their crimes by what Ladybug calls acts of cowardice such as car bombs or long-range sniper attacks; rather, the members of Beauty descend on their target in person usually in a public place where witnesses can capture the assassination on cell phones and record exactly why Beauty is targeting their victim. Beauty's statements usually include a list of 'crimes' such as "Councilman Weber, for the past three years in office you have repeatedly voted against laws and city ordinances that would protect innocent women from becoming victims. Today your poor judgment has come back to haunt you. We are Beauty, and your power-mongering is at an end." Beauty makes a point of alerting their chosen target that he is going to be assassinated almost always, without fail. Of course they never say when or where, which only increases the target's fear. Ladybug has gone on record explaining that Beauty performs these 'public service announcements' so that their victim can have a taste of what a woman whom has been victimized by a crime suffers. Naturally when super-heroes try to point out to the members of Beauty that they have become exactly what they fight against when they leave innocent wives, sisters, and daughters suffering the unquenchable pangs of loss and heartbreak because of crime, such pleas fall on deaf ears are are refuted. Beauty simply doesn't realize the sheer hypocrisy of what they do. Vigilant and attentive heroes know better than to take one of Beauty's public service announcements with a grain of salt because where Beauty goes, people die.